Kidnapped eBook

CHAPTER I

I SET OFF UPON MY JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF SHAWS

I will begin the story of my adventures with a certain
morning early in the month of June, the year of grace
1751, when I took the key for the last time out of
the door of my father’s house. The sun began
to shine upon the summit of the hills as I went down
the road; and by the time I had come as far as the
manse, the blackbirds were whistling in the garden
lilacs, and the mist that hung around the valley in
the time of the dawn was beginning to arise and die
away.

Mr. Campbell, the minister of Essendean, was waiting
for me by the garden gate, good man! He asked
me if I had breakfasted; and hearing that I lacked
for nothing, he took my hand in both of his and clapped
it kindly under his arm.

“Well, Davie, lad,” said he, “I
will go with you as far as the ford, to set you on
the way.” And we began to walk forward in
silence.

“Are ye sorry to leave Essendean?” said
he, after awhile.

“Why, sir,” said I, “if I knew where
I was going, or what was likely to become of me, I
would tell you candidly. Essendean is a good place
indeed, and I have been very happy there; but then
I have never been anywhere else. My father and
mother, since they are both dead, I shall be no nearer
to in Essendean than in the Kingdom of Hungary, and,
to speak truth, if I thought I had a chance to better
myself where I was going I would go with a good will.”

“Ay?” said Mr. Campbell. “Very
well, Davie. Then it behoves me to tell your
fortune; or so far as I may. When your mother
was gone, and your father (the worthy, Christian man)
began to sicken for his end, he gave me in charge
a certain letter, which he said was your inheritance.
’So soon,’ says he, ’as I am gone,
and the house is redd up and the gear disposed of’
(all which, Davie, hath been done), ’give my
boy this letter into his hand, and start him off to
the house of Shaws, not far from Cramond. That
is the place I came from,’ he said, ’and
it’s where it befits that my boy should return.
He is a steady lad,’ your father said, ’and
a canny goer; and I doubt not he will come safe, and
be well lived where he goes.’”

“The house of Shaws!” I cried. “What
had my poor father to do with the house of Shaws?”

“Nay,” said Mr. Campbell, “who can
tell that for a surety? But the name of that
family, Davie, boy, is the name you bear—­Balfours
of Shaws: an ancient, honest, reputable house,
peradventure in these latter days decayed. Your
father, too, was a man of learning as befitted his
position; no man more plausibly conducted school; nor
had he the manner or the speech of a common dominie;
but (as ye will yourself remember) I took aye a pleasure
to have him to the manse to meet the gentry; and those
of my own house, Campbell of Kilrennet, Campbell of
Dunswire, Campbell of Minch, and others, all well-kenned
gentlemen, had pleasure in his society. Lastly,
to put all the elements of this affair before you,
here is the testamentary letter itself, superscrived
by the own hand of our departed brother.”